


Bedlam

by WeBuiltThePyramids



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: (post season three finale), F/M, Gen, basically this is the result of this show not allowing me to trust anything they tell me anymore, but more of a continual worldbuilding fic than a shippy one, eventual cheleanor, i don't even know how to tag this tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2019-11-18 23:50:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18128135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeBuiltThePyramids/pseuds/WeBuiltThePyramids
Summary: Welcome!  Everything is wrong.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ennaxor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ennaxor/gifts).



> To those of you waiting for the final installment of An Always Situation, hopefully soon! I was sick for like, literally weeks and that really threw me off.
> 
> Anyway, this fic has nothing to do with that one and will require you to suspend your Good Place related disbelief a bit. Hopefully you'll enjoy this spin on things. I've had a lot of fun outlining it. (If you follow me on Tumblr you may have already seen the post that I made that this fic is building off of.)

“So it’s not the _same_ Janet in every neighborhood, then.”

“No,” Eleanor said.  “All Janets have the same information about the world, but there’s one to each neighborhood.  That way when we call her, she comes right from her void as opposed to potentially being hung up somewhere else.  Then the Bad Place neighborhoods have a Bad Janet.”

“Huh.”  Chidi nodded thoughtfully.  “I must say, I know you said architects don’t usually live in the neighborhoods, but it has been so fascinating learning about all this afterlife stuff from you!”

She smiled.  “Yeah?”

“And there’s so much I still don’t know.  Though I suppose…are you like…top of the food chain, or…I don’t know how this works.  Is there information you aren’t privy to either?”

Eleanor actually hadn’t thought much about that.  “I’m more…I guess you could say middle management.  There’ll be people above me, like the…the main…God…equivalent…she knows more than I do about the intricacies.”

“I assume it would not be possible to learn from her.”

“Hey now,” she said, feigning offense, “is my teaching not good enough for you or something?”

He chuckled, seemingly recognizing her act as playful.  “You are a wonderful resource.  And…person?  I suppose you’re not technically a person.”

For a moment, Eleanor was annoyed at the previous version of Chidi for being so confident in _her_ ability to not screw this up.  “Ha ha,” she said awkwardly.  “Yeah.  Definitely not a person.  Nope.  Just an afterlife angel.”

Chidi smiled at her.  “Well, I have to run.  Jianyu invited me to meditate with him.  At least, that’s what I think he suggested.  But it’ll be nice to be in silence for a while.  I really feel like it helps us be more in tune with ourselves.”

“Yeah.  Sure.”  Eleanor nodded, slightly suspicious.  She could see Tahani standing near one of the frozen yogurt shops, meaning Jason was alone.  _Don’t blow this, buddy._   “Well, you have a good time.  I’m going to see how Tahani is getting on.  Talk to you later?”

“Oh yes.  I’m sure I will have many more questions.”

“And I will do my best to answer them.  If I don’t know, I’ll be happy to make something up.”

Chidi laughed, taking it completely as a joke.  Eleanor breathed a sigh of relief.

“Hey homegirl,” she said as she approached Tahani, glancing over to her left to make sure Chidi was still walking away.  “What’s going on with the other real residents?”

Tahani shrugged.  “I would say everyone is improving.  Marginally.  It’s really hard to say if it will be enough.”

“It has to be,” Eleanor said.  “Humanity got into the Good Place once.  We’re descended from those people.  There’s no way we don’t have the ability to improve ourselves.  There’s no way.”

“I just wish we had a better idea of specifically how much improvement is enough,” Tahani said.  “I don’t suppose the judge could provide us with some sort of spreadsheet or…or chart?”

“Who knows?  Maybe come Judgement Day she will decide hey, she likes us, we’ve suffered enough, we’ve earned our way into the Good Place just for having to go through this over eight hundred times.”

Eleanor and Tahani both jumped at the sound of a laugh…or a snort, really, from just around the corner.  They eyed each other.  “Did you…” Tahani started hesitantly.

Eleanor answered by marching past her and around the side of the building.  There she found Simone, leaning up against the brick, one foot resting as she stared off into space as if daydreaming.

Eleanor had perfected the ‘act innocent’ look.  She could notice it a mile away.  “Hey Garnett.  What were you laughing at?”

“Laughing?  I wasn’t laughing.  What are you talking about, laughing?”

“Yeah, you’re terrible at this.  What did you overhear?”  It suddenly occurred to Eleanor that when she heard rumors about what was going on for the first time – or for what she thought was the first time – she was always suspicious, always wanting to know more.  Simone was doing almost the opposite – pretending that she hadn’t heard anything.  Eleanor’s eyes narrowed.  “Hang on.  What do you _know_?”

Simone froze, as if unsure of what she was supposed to say.  “Hey!” Eleanor said loudly, taking a step toward her.  “ _What do you_ _know?_ ”

“I haven’t the faintest idea of what you’re talking about.”

“You’re a _terrible_ actress,” Tahani said, taking a step forward, standing right behind Eleanor and slowly folding her arms.  “At least when you’re challenged.  I’m beginning to suspect you’re actually a quite brilliant one in other respects.”

Simone’s eyes were switching rapid fire between the two women.  Eleanor knew that look, too.  She was about to crack.  “Simone.  _Out_ with it!”

“Look, you have to understand something.  Michael warmed to you guys, right?  And you forgave him for the torture, right? So you know that it’s possible to genuinely change your perspective.”

Eleanor’s eyes were as wide as all the times she realized they were in the Bad Place.  “Oh my God, you’re a demon.”

“Well, not exac…I don’t care for the term,” she said.  “But I suppose now is not the time to quibble over terminology.”

“Holy shirt,” Eleanor said, glancing over her shoulder at Tahani, then back at Simone.  “Why…does Michael know about this?” Her jaw dropped.  “The judge…this new experiment is tainted if we have a demon instead of a human!”  _They rebooted Chidi for nothing.  Nothing at all._   She whirled to face her friend.  “Tahani, we have to go to the judge!”

Simone made another little laughing sound, then covered her mouth as the two women looked sharply at her.  “Oh dear.  I think you need some information.  No, that’s wrong, I _know_ you need information if you’re to understand.  But you have to trust me.”

“That’s a bit of a bold request, don’t you think?” Tahani asked, putting her hands on her hips.  “Given the nature of the past few minutes?”

“I understand.  But what you have to understand is this is so much bigger than what you know.  Okay, remember…oh, you probably don’t.”  Simone frowned.  “Once, you met Shawn, and you were told he was the most powerful person in the afterlife.  He really was just a Bad Place demon.  A top dog in the Bad Place, but not overall.  But you were told he was more important than that, and you believed it, because you had no reason to think otherwise.  Just like – ”

“Just like all the times we believed we were in the Good Place,” Tahani finished.

“Exactly.  You’ve been led to believe so many things, and…” Simone cleared her throat. 

"Hang on," Eleanor said.  "We challenge you for ten seconds and all of a sudden you want to spill?  How do we know anything you will say is the truth."

"You don't.  But you can't make that determination until you hear it."

"She does have a point," Eleanor said to Tahani in a low voice.

“The best way is to show you," Simone said.  "Janet?”

She appeared immediately.  “Hi there.”

“Janet,” Simone said, “I need Michael’s…hard drive…thing.”

“I’m sorry,” Janet said.  “Michael’s projection can only be accessed by an architect.”

“But Janet,” Eleanor said.  “I’m the architect…remember?”

“…right.  Yes.”

“And I say it’s okay.  So give _me_ the memory computer…the projection thing.”

“Okay.”  The screen appeared.  Janet handed Eleanor the remote.  “Here you go.”

Eleanor smiled.  “Thanks Babe.  Now go someplace else.”

“Do you have a preference as to where I should go?”

“No.  Just _away_.”

“Okay.  Goodbye.”

“So why do we have this?” Eleanor asked Simone when Janet was gone.  “What is this going to show us?  There are hundreds of reboots.”

“All we need to start is the…well…” Simone wrinkled her nose.  “The _first_ one.”

“Why did you say it like that?”

“Because I don’t know what he calls it.  He and I aren’t ‘besties’ or whatever you call it.”

“I believe she is referring to _Attempt One_ ,” Tahani offered.

“Yes.  Good.” Simone nodded.  “We’re on the same page.  ‘Attempt One.’  Can I?”  She held her hand out.

The Earth version of Simone would have said _may_ I.  She had really dropped the act.  Eleanor handed her the remote, and Simone pressed a few buttons.  Suddenly, Eleanor appeared on the screen, in the clown house with Michael.

_“You can review everything that happened in your life from your point of view.  Here we go.  This is your human rights mission to Ukraine…”_

Michael had told Eleanor much about the first attempt.  She knew this conversation had happened, but this was the first time she was seeing it.  She watched intently, her heart lurching when Chidi appeared.

_“Eleanor?  I’m Chidi Anagonye, and you are my soulmate.”_

_“Cool, bring it in, man!”_

“It’s weird watching it all start,” she said quietly, toying with her hands.

Simone gave her a long glance.  “Yeah.  Anyway.  Watch this part, where you go sit on the couch.  See right here?  This is important to what I’m about to tell you.”

Eleanor still wasn’t sure if she could trust what Simone was saying, but she listened, tuning everything else out, feeling as if she really was there on that couch, listening to Chidi tell her all the places he had lived.  She knew what was coming when her past self asked him if he’d stand by her no matter what, and she felt nervous in knowing what Attempt One Eleanor was going to say next, even though she knew from Michael that in all the reboots, he always helped her.

“ _Those aren’t my memories.  I wasn’t a lawyer.  I never went to the Ukraine.  I hate clowns.  There’s been a big mistake.  I’m not supposed to be here.”_

“And there it is.”  Simone hit pause.

Eleanor turned toward her. “I’m still confused.  I know all this happened.  What is the point in you showing it to me?”

“Because,” Simone said, gesturing to the television.  “You heard what you said there, right?  That’s _very_ important.”

Eleanor nodded slowly, feeling no less confused.  “And?”

“And. And that is it begins.”  Simon hit a couple buttons, and it played back.

“ _Those aren’t my memories.  I wasn’t a lawyer.  I never went to the Ukraine.  I hate clowns.”_

Simone let her hand with the remote fall back to her side.  “And that is where you’re wrong.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the weeks of waiting for an update (on the waiting note I am absolutely DONE waiting on season four), real life can be a real son of a bench sometimes. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter; it's a bit shorter but we jump into different stuff after this and I needed to break it up here. Comments are always appreciated. <3

Eleanor allowed Simone to accompany her back to her office.  No, that wasn’t right.  Eleanor took Simone to the office Eleanor was currently using, because it wasn’t hers and as a demon, Simone was free to show up there anyway.  Even though Simone had just asked Eleanor to take her, as if she’d be stopped by a _no._

It turned out Eleanor had even less control than she’d thought.  But then again, she supposed at this point she was a fool to believe that anything was anything more than an illusion.

“Okay,” Eleanor said, throwing the door open and allowing Simone and Tahani to walk in in front of her.  “We’re here.  Now spill.  What’s this about my fake past?”

“I already told you,” Simone said, “it’s not a fake past.  It’s…”

“No, no, no,” Eleanor said, shaking her head and folding her arms.  “Maybe I was rebooted eight hundred odd times in the afterlife, but my memory of being alive hasn’t been erased.”

“Except that it _has_ ,” Simone said.  “The timeline on Earth has been reset dozens of times. I thought you were prepared to hear me out.”

“So…” Tahani glanced at Eleanor.  “So what you’re saying is, when we were sent back to Earth to form the Soul Squad…that _wasn’t_ the first time we’d been made alive again?”

“Correct.”

“And has this…ever been done to anyone else?”

Simone nodded rapidly.  “Oh, yes.  We do this kind of thing all the time.”

“But Michael had told us that it was a big to – do when he sent us back.  That he had to get permission, and…”

“I’m sure he did tell you that,” Simone said.  “But when you first died, he also told you you were in The Good Place.  He also told you that Shawn was the Head Honcho up here.  He says a lot of things.  We all do.”

“I’m confused on something,” Tahani said.  “Or, rather, a lot of things, but specifically, Michael told us, back when we were on Earth and…discovered…all of this…” She cocked her head.  “He said that there was potential problems with bringing people back to life.  He said it would mess with the timeline.”

“Oh yes,” Simone said.  “We’ve all lied to you countless times, but _that’s_ the truth.”

“Give us an example,” Eleanor said, her eyes narrowed.  “Give us an example of the way the world could be messed up without people knowing.”

“Oh, people know,” she said.  “They’re just written off.  People do pick up on these kinds of things; they couldn’t imagine the actual cause, of course, but rewinds and resets aren’t perfect.  Subtle things remain in the memory that…”

“ _Example_.”

“Tahani,” Simone said.  “You’re good friends with Sarah Jessica Parker, yes?”

“Oh, yes!” Tahani said.  “We are good friends, despite our age difference.  About ten years ago we went on a lovely trip to…oh my God, is she dead?”  Her face changed from joyful to horrified.

“No.  But what was the name of the show she starred in around the turn of the century?”

“Oh!  Sex in the City!”  Tahani clapped her hands together in delight.

Simone cocked her head.  “Is it, though?”  She cleared her throat.  “Janet?”

“Hi there!”

“Janet, can you fetch me the DVDs for the HBO show that aired from A.D. 1998 to 2004 that starred Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon?

“Here you go!”  Janet handed the six DVD sets over, glancing at Eleanor.  The glance made Eleanor wonder if she knew anything more, or if she was genuinely baffled at how Simone seemed to ahve taken control.  “Do you want the movies, too?”  She asked, looking back at Simone.  "Dear...resident?"

“No, that will be enough, Janet.  Thank you.”  Simon held the boxes out to Tahani.  “What do these say?”

“Sex and the…no,” Tahani shook her head. “This is wrong.  It’s _in_ , not _and_.”

“No, Tahani,” Eleanor said.  “I watched that.  It definitely was Sex and the City.”

“But it isn’t,” Tahani said.  “I was on set once, as a teenager in the final season.  I remember.”

“Let’s try another example,” Simone said.  “Shall we?  Eleanor, you grew up hating Disney movies, right?”

“Just the ones with princesses in them,” Eleanor said.  “Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the most annoying one of all?”

“What,” Tahani said, “with all the stories I’ve heard, it seems prior to the Soul Squad you might have identified with the evil queen.”

“Hey – ”

“You went straight to my point, Eleanor,” Simone said.  “The line was _never_ ‘mirror, mirror.’  The queen says ‘magic mirror on the wall.’”

“No,” Eleanor said.  “No, that’s one hundred percent wrong.”

“Except it isn’t.  Janet?”

“Hi there!”

“No, Janet!” Eleanor said, waving her off.  “No, we don’t need you.  Go back to your void.”

“Okay.  Goodbye.”

“All of these things are examples of what you on Earth know as the Mandela Effect,” Simone said when Janet was gone.  “You know, how Nelson Mandela died in 2013, but many people remember him dying in prison in the 1980s.  The most famous, at least in English speaking countries, is the spelling of the children’s books about the family of bears: B – E – R – E – N – S – T – E – I – N Bears versus B – E – R – E – N – S – T – A – I – N Bears.”

“With an E,” Eleanor said, at the same time Tahani said “with an A.”

Simone smiled.

“So, which is right?” Eleanor asked.

“That depends on how your memories set after each timeline was set back.  It’s an A currently, but was an E in the past.  Ditto with the date of Mandela’s death.  He died in January of 1986 in a previous reset – and in that one, the space shuttle _Challenger_ exploded in 1984, which is another memory some people have.  But in this reality, _Challenger_ exploded in January of 1986, and Mandela died in 2013.  Sometimes these things shuffle around when we mess with things, and with the shuffling of memories in addition to that, we’re left with people who remember something the other way.”

“So Sex…” Tahani glanced at the top DVD in her hands, “ _and_ the City…it was Sex _in_ the City, at some point?”

Simone nodded.  “And, at some point before a reshuffle, the evil queen _did_ say, ‘mirror, mirror, on the wall.’”

“Shirt,” Eleanor said, shaking her head.  “So at some point before…before these eight hundred odd reboots happened up here…”

“Oh, and during.  You guys were sent back to Earth after reboots 15, 287, and 600, too.”

Eleanor blinked.  “Okay.  But tell me about this old me.  Tell me about the me that apparently went on humanitarian trips and was a lawyer.  How did I die that time?  Why was I chosen to get sent back?  What was _that_ Eleanor Shellstrop like?”

Simone snapped her fingers.  “Neutral Janet?”

Neutral Janet appeared.  Eleanor wondered if this was the same one from the accounting office.

“Neutral Janet,” Simone said.  “I need you to go way back in the archives.  I need the file for Eleanor Shellstrop – Anagonye.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I'm sorry it took so long to update this. It requires so much thinking and bullet pointing and research that I don't feel like I should update it unless I have the time to be completely focused on writing and editing. But hopefully there won't be quite as long a break until the next chapter!
> 
> For Cheleanor fans, this chapter is pretty heavy with them, largely in flashback. For those of you on Tumblr, my url is the same as this and I published a fanvideo for them today called "700 Times" and it's one of the top posts on my blog and is on YouTube, so check that out if fanvids are your thing.

**Texas, United States, 2010**

* * *

 

> “Ronald,” Eleanor said, rubbing the dog’s side.  “This is for your own good, bud.”
> 
> Ronald lifted his head, tipping it back in an attempt to avoid the dropper. “No,” she said, “we don’t want this going down your windpipe, now do we?  We’re trying to make you better, not worse.”  Gently easing the dog’s head back into position, Eleanor wrapped her hand loosely around his snout, sticking the dropper into the corner of his mouth and expelling the medication.  She closed her hand, dropping the dispenser and stroking his throat.  She felt him swallow, and then saw his tongue come out to lick his upper lip and nose.  “Good boy,” she said, patting his shoulder.  “Good boy.” 
> 
> Ronald rubbed against the couch.  He used to love jumping up on it, the shelter said, but his arthritis was too advanced now for that to be easy.  So while Bozo and Joker, his adopted brothers, got their medicine while cuddled up to one of the humans on the couch, Eleanor sat on the floor to medicate the eldest dog.  Upon reaching the end of the couch, Ronald trotted off toward the stairs in search of either one of them or Ann.
> 
> At the sound of footsteps on the front step, Eleanor hopped to her feet, ignoring the slight pain in the soles from standing for a long time.  Her current trial had been a lot preparation, which meant a lot of sitting down and reading.  She would have to make sure she got herself back in shape before Somalia.  “Hey, second hottest person living in this house.”
> 
> Chidi hung up his coat, grinning at her.  “Still funny, Eleanor.”  She stepped into his arms, wrapping hers tightly around him and grinning.
> 
> “Enjoy it while you can.  Ann is going to upstage both of us eventually.”
> 
> “How did court go today?” He asked.
> 
> “Excellent,” she said.  “The defense rests.  In more ways than one.  I just woke up from a nap.”
> 
> “The dogs all medicated?”
> 
> “Yep.  As usual, Joker and Bozo were angels and Ronald was a total asshole.”
> 
> “He sure doesn’t understand that we’re trying to help him,” Chidi said.
> 
> “Nope.  It’s worth it, though.  To see him thriving.”
> 
> “Absolutely.”
> 
> “How was _your_ day?” She asked.
> 
> “Excellent.  I’ve trimmed down my manuscript to a more manageable length.  You were right, having someone else read it aloud to me made the difference in determining what was too wordy.”
> 
> “Glad I could help,” she said, linking her arm with his.
> 
> “You always help,” he said, smiling affectionately at her.  “Thank you.”
> 
> “Kiss meeee,” she said, and he did, his hands cupping her face.  She loved how tenderly he kissed her, even after eight years together.  So many of their colleagues complained.  The spark was gone, or they felt objectified, or kids ruined the passion.  Eleanor, a secret hopeless romantic, always believed that the reason she and Chidi were different was because they were soulmates, but she knew it was probably more likely the effort they put into the relationship.  They _chose_ each other, over and over again.  And of course, it didn’t hurt that they both found the attentiveness they gave to each other extremely attractive.
> 
> They broke apart – sort of, their arms still rested around each other’s waists – at the sound of paws dashing down the stairs.  “Hey, Joker!” Chidi said, patting his thigh.   The dog skidded to a stop in front of him, tail wagging so hard he almost overbalanced.  “That prosthetic leg looks good on you, big guy.  Getting really used to it, huh?”  He patted the animal’s head.  “I heard from Uzo that Bo’s little sister is in the shelter by the university.  He might go pick her up.”
> 
> “If he doesn’t, we will take her,” Eleanor said. 
> 
> “That’s a lot of dogs,” Chidi said.  “I want to help as many of them as I can, sure, but…”
> 
> “Worst case scenario is they spend the day in the backyard while I’m out of the country.  None of them are small enough for birds of prey to be an issue, and they all get along.  We will make it work.  We always do.”
> 
> Joker sat down, lifting a paw and tapping Chidi’s leg.  “What do you want, boy?” Chidi asked.  “Where’s Bo?”
> 
> “I think he’s sleeping with Ann,” Eleanor said.  “Ronald went up there, too.”

* * *

“Hold on,” Eleanor said, “did I really name all my dogs after famous clowns?”

“You did,” Simone said.  “Like I said…past you was…very different.”

“Ann isn’t the name of a clown,” Tahani said.  “At least not one of the well known ones.  That’s why I’ve always enjoyed the insult ‘who is this clown?’  It not only calls you a clown, but you’re not even one of the better known clowns.  It’s a delightful way to get a dig in.”

“Ann wasn’t a clown,” Simone said.  “Anwuli Anagonye was Eleanor and Chidi’s daughter.  She was born in 2002.”

“When I was _twenty_?”  Eleanor asked.  “No, wait, that’s not my first question, I was a _mom_?”

“Yes,” Simone said.  “You got pregnant your sophomore year in college.  You and Chidi debated for a long time about whether or not it was ethical to bring a child into the world when you were both so busy with studies and work, and, of course, 2002 was a bit of a tumultuous time, but you ultimately decided to have her.”

Eleanor was quiet.  She’d never – not in the memories she still had, anyway – thought much about having children.  She’d never wanted to be a mother.  It was too much sacrifice, and her own mother made the task seem absolutely miserable.  If it had ever crossed her mind, Eleanor was sure she’d assume herself to be very ill suited for the task.  And yet…

She cleared her throat, shifting her weight on the couch.  “Uh…was I…a good mother?”

“Oh, yes,” Simone said.  “Ann adored the both of you and you always told her, after going to or coming back from long term humanitarian trips, that of all the good you were doing in the world, she was the greatest thing you’d ever done.”

“That does not sound like me at all,” Eleanor said.  “It’s weird…I only recognize me in this footage because I can watch it.  I know that’s me.  It looks like me and sounds like me, but…”

“It was you.  It was just a different you.  Different circumstances.”  Simone looked at the paused screen. 

“I want to see more,” Eleanor said.  “I want…I want to see all of it.”

“I…that would take a long time,” Simone said.

“I don’t care.”

“Ugh.  Humans are so needy. I can show you a bit of a highlight reel.  Similar to what Michael showed you and Chidi before he rebooted him.”

“Yes.  I mean, yes, please show me,” Eleanor said.

“I’ll go,” Tahani said.  “I think this is getting rather personal and private.”

“I really don’t mind…”

“No,” Tahani said, holding up a hand.  “No, it’s okay.  I’ll see you later?”

“Okay.  Sure.”

“Alright,” Simone said when Tahani was gone.  “Here you go.”

The screen shimmered, slowly shifting into a clip of a much younger Eleanor walking on a sidewalk, a bag slung over her shoulder and a textbook in her hand.  She was holding a leash, and a black puppy trotted along just ahead of her.

“Excuse me.”

Eleanor felt a shiver go down her spine as she recognized the voice.  Other Chidi stepped into view.  “I’m sorry, I just…I had a puppy just like this when I was a kid.  Would it be alright if I patted him?”

“Oh, of course,” Other Eleanor said.  “His name is W.G.  After Wavy Gravy the hippie activist clown of the Vietnam Era.  He is going to be a service dog for someone, eventually.”

“I approve,” Chidi said, bending down and holding out a hand for the puppy to sniff.  “Aw, you’re a sweetheart, aren’t you?”

Eleanor saw Other Eleanor blush, then clear her throat, looking embarrassed, as if she’d thought for a moment that Other Chidi was referring to her, and not the puppy.  Other Chidi looked up.  “Oh, I’m so sorry.  I didn’t introduce myself.”  He got to his feet.  “Chidi Anagonye.  I’m studying ethics.”

“Eleanor,” she said.  “Pre – law.”

The scene transitioned.  Other Chidi and Other Eleanor were sitting next to one another at a library.  He looked stressed.  He was making motions between two papers, and Eleanor could tell that this Chidi was just as indecisive as the one she knew.  Other Chidi leaned back in his chair, one hand on his forehead and the other on his stomach.

Other Eleanor reached out, putting a hand on his arm and saying something - there was no audio this time, so Eleanor couldn’t tell what it was.  Other Chidi straightened up, looking at her curiously.  Then he leaned in and put his mouth on hers.  Other Eleanor melted into it instantly. 

The scene changed again, and again, no audio was present.  Just her, well, Other Eleanor, and Other Chidi sitting at an outside table at a restaurant, eating hot fudge sundaes.  The wind picked up, and the umbrella over the table pulled loose.  Other Chidi lunged for it, but it toppled onto Other Eleanor, and when he lifted it off of her, her sundae was all over her shirt.

Eleanor smiled when she saw them laughing.  Other Chidi shoved what remained of his sundae – it was in a waffle bowl, of course, because then there was no waste – in his mouth, and reached for her hand, helping her back to her feet.  He took off his jacket, and Other Eleanor put it on while shooting him a grateful look.  They made their way what seemed to be a few blocks until they reached a park.  Other Eleanor glanced around, then turned, grinning at Other Chidi mischievously.  Then she removed the jacket before flashing him a grin – oh, Eleanor knew that grin, that flirtatious grin – and pulled her ruined shirt over her head.

Other Chidi’s eyes widened in shock.  Eleanor watched as her past self grinned at him, made a come hither motion with her finger, and pulled him against her, mashing her mouth to his.  He pulled back, glancing frantically around while she looked at him in that knowing way that said she already had checked to make sure no one was around, but she’d let him reassure himself anyway.  Then Other Chidi looked back at her, and he let her pull him down behind a hedge.

“Is that when I got pregnant?” Eleanor asked.

Her speaking caused the video to pause.  “No,” Simone said.  “That was not quite the type of intimacy that typically causes conception.”

“Can I…watch us…do that kind of intimacy?”

Simone looked at her incredulously.  “You humans are _obsessed_ with sex.”

“I’m obsessed with hot people having sex,” Eleanor said.  “Especially when one of them is me.”  She shrugged.  “It’s a standard human interest, so kill me.  Oh, that’s right.  You already have.  Dozens of times, apparently.  Ripping me away from what appears to be a super happy life.”  She snapped her fingers.  “Let me watch more.”

“Stop talking, and it will start playing again.”

“Good.”

The next few scenes were of school – Other Eleanor rushing out of a building clutching a paper in her hand, running straight into Chidi’s chest and letting him hug her before jumping up and down in front of him, showing off her final grade.  Other Chidi receiving a standing ovation after giving a presentation, Other Eleanor having snuck into the back to watch him.  Then came a clip of them in what Eleanor recognized was Washington DC.  She glanced at Simone.  _Millennium March on Washington_ , the demon mouthed.

Eleanor had no idea what that was.  Based on the signs the previous versions of her and Chidi were carrying, it appeared to be an LGBT rights rally.

The scene shifted, showing them at another protest, seemingly the same year if her and Chidi’s unfortunate haircuts were anything to go by.  This one appeared to be about gun violence.

“We were in D.C. a lot,” Eleanor said to Simone.  “Is that where we went to college?  Not…we didn’t meet in Australia?”

“Chidi’s family lived in the United States for a few years.  He did his undergrad there.  You all ended back up in Australia – you and Uzo – by the end of 2012.  Between 2000 and then, you two lived in France, China, and Peru.  You also spent three months in temporary housing in Senegal to take care of Chidi’s grandmother.  Your work took you both all over the place.  In the bit you watched first with the dogs, you were still in the United States, you were doing your death row work.  Australia abolished the death penalty a long time ago.”

“Can I see…” she trailed off.  She still didn’t entirely trust Simone – she seemed almost _too_ forthcoming with information.  But now that she knew she and Chidi had had a life together before…before _any_ of the afterlife stuff she’d been aware of…she wanted to know.  She wanted all of it.  But she was especially curious about one thing in particular.  “Can I see more of…of when I was pregnant?  Of interacting with Anwuli?”

Simone stood, went over to the screen, and drew a design on the monitor.  It refreshed.

* * *

 

**Massachusetts, United States, 2002**

* * *

 

> “I feel so bad,” Eleanor said.  “You work hard enough.”
> 
> “You work hard, too,” Chidi said.  “And you’re took more credits than me this semester _despite_ this.  You deserve to put your feet up and be spoiled for a day.”
> 
> “I don’t deserve you,” she said with a smile, resting her hands on her belly.
> 
> “I could say the same thing about you,” he said with a smile.
> 
> “I hope we can do right by her,” she said.  “We’re so young, Chidi.  I know we did our pros and cons list but I still wonder sometimes if we made the right decision in having her.”
> 
> He stopped rubbing her feet, standing up from the coffee table so he could drop down on the futon next to her.  “Hey,” he said.  “We’ve got this.  We do.”  He reached over, placing his hand over hers.  “You might have to make most of the snap decisions, but…” He chuckled when Eleanor did, then rested his head on her shoulder.
> 
> “You’re not this confident about anything,” she said, leaning her head against his.
> 
> “I’m always this confident about you.”
> 
> “Me and ethics,” Eleanor said.  “Adding you to it, that’s quite the ménage à trois.”
> 
> Chidi laughed.  “And soon to add the fourth to the mix.”
> 
> “I hope she likes baby wearing.  I want to go to the Reparations March.”
> 
> Chidi chuckled.  “At least that one is before school starts again.  It’s okay if you dial it back a little, you know.  Taking care of yourself doesn’t mean you care less about other people.”
> 
> “What a hypocritical statement you just made,” she said.  “That mind of yours is always racing toward what else you can do and understand.”
> 
> “Just my nature, I guess.”
> 
> “And mine.”  She squeezed his hand.  “It’s one of the things I love most about you, boyfriend.”

* * *

It was weird.  It was so, so weird, to watch this.  Chidi was recognizable, and she _supposed_ she could see herself in there, too.  But everything was so different, so…so not her.  But there were inklings of her.  She could see how _maybe_ , if her life had been different, she could be that person she was looking at.

But this had created more questions than it answered.

Eleanor turned to Simone “So what about when…”

“Knock knock!”

She’d heard his voice a lot in the past few minutes, but this time it wasn’t the video.  Eleanor and Simone launched to their feet, frantically minimizing the projection.  “Chidi!” Eleanor said.  “What’s going on with you today?”

“Well,” he started.

Eleanor’s mind was racing.  _We were married.  Before all of this.  We had a daughter.  And we adopted sick dogs.  And we traveled the world and fought injustice and were completely inseparable, even when things were scary as fork._

“So that was pretty fun,” Chidi said, and Eleanor realized she had completely zoned out.  She cleared her throat.  “Sounds like it,” she said.  “Did you need me for something?”

“Oh, Jianyu drew me a photo of pizza and then wrote my name, yours, and Tahani’s around it.  I met her while I was coming to find you and she thinks it’s a ‘delightful’ idea for us to all eat together tonight.  Is that okay?  Or…do you have other plans?”

Eleanor glanced at Simone, who was still messing with the equipment Janet had brought.  “Oh,” Chidi said.  “Were you…were you two planning on binging some television?”

Oh.  Right.  The Sex and the City DVDs.  “No, no,” she said.  “Simone was just showing me some stuff that she did when she was a human.  Alive, I mean.  When she was alive.”

“Oh, cool.”  Chidi smiled at Simone.  “I’m sure Jianyu wouldn’t mind if you joined us.”

“Oh,” Simone said.  “Thank you, but I do have things to do.  I have a meeting with Michael, about…uh…stuff.”

“Okay.  Maybe next time, then.”  He turned to Eleanor and smiled.  “Walk with me?  I want to stop by The Hood Place on the way.  I know they’re mostly hoodies, but they have some nice looking sweater vests in the front window.”

She smiled.  “You want me to come along to help you choose one.”

He grinned.  “I’m always better at making decisions when you’re around.  It must be your afterlife powers or something.”

“Yeah,” Eleanor said.  “That must be it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone for all the support on this story so far! I promise there will be chapters that aren't quite as Cheleanor heavy, but the experiment the demons are doing was largely inspired by their pre-series relationship, so there's a lot of groundwork to lay!


	4. Chapter 4

Jason could barely contain his excitement – and his silence – upon witnessing Chidi’s enthusiasm for the pizza Janet provided.  “That’s right, buddy,” Chidi said, giving Jason a pat on the shoulder.  “It’s pizza!”  He turned to Tahani.  “I don’t think when I was alive I ever understood how…” he glanced at Jason.  “How…exciting…pizza could be.”

“Jianyu adores pizza,” Tahani said.  “Darling – would you come assist me with the dessert?”

“Did Janet not just bring us dessert?” Chidi asked Eleanor.

“Tahani enjoys making preparations.  Allowing her to do so herself contributes to her Good Place experience.”

“Makes sense.  You know, I’ve said this before, but I am thrilled that you’re here to answer all these questions.  I know we’re dead, and it’s not like anyone’s _life’s_ work matters here, but I just love to learn.  Well, clearly, if dying didn’t change that, I’m not sure what could.  I…” he paused. “Are you sure I’m not bothering you?  I’m constantly taking you away from your other duties…”

“You are not bothering me at all,” she said.  “I promise.”

“Good.”  He smiled.  “Good.”

“Eleanor?  Chidi?”

They followed Tahani’s voice.  “Look,” she said.  “Tiramisu.  Not exactly diet friendly, but pairs well with pizza plus it’s the Good Place.  No one bullies each other about how they should look here.”

“Looks delicious, Tahani,” Chidi said.  “Eleanor, can you eat?  I don’t believe I have seen Michael from Dog Heaven eat.”

“I can eat if I wish to eat,” Eleanor said.  Oddly, of all the random questions she’d prepared answers to, this wasn’t one of them.  “It just doesn’t do anything or go anywhere.  I can taste it, though.  But I don’t have a digestive system, per se.  I mean…” She had no idea where she was going with this, so she decided to end with humor.  Eleanor threw up her hands.  “It’s complicated for humans to understand.  You might say that Houston, I have so many problems.”

“Fun fact,” Chidi said, “did you know that that original line is misquoted in the film _Apollo 13_? In the real Apollo 13 incident, Jack Swigert said ‘Houston, we’ve had a problem here’ and Jim Lovell then repeated the transmission by saying ‘Houston, we’ve had a problem.’  The incorrect ‘Houston, we have a problem’ was popularized thanks to the film.”

“You, dear Chidi, would be a delight at any of my famous Earthly get togethers,” Tahani said, giving a light, musical laugh.

“Did you just tell Chidi he must be fun at parties?” Eleanor asked.

“Yes, but without the sarcasm that usually accompanies that phrasing.”

“I wonder if that was how they said it in another version,” Eleanor pondered.

Chidi frowned.  “Another version of what?”

Eleanor smiled.  “Nothing, Chidi.  Just afterlife jabber.”

* * *

**Melbourne, Australia, 2013**

_Brave_ was Anwuli’s favorite movie, but Eleanor noticed halfway through that her daughter had barely said a word, or even reacted to her favorite parts.  “Are you okay, Annie?”

“Yes.”

Eleanor scooted closer and slid her arm around the girl’s shoulders.  “Talk to me, Little.”

“I miss you when you’re gone.”

“I miss you, too.  But you have fun with Dad.”

“Yeah.”

“Is something else bothering you?”

“Australia.”

“You don’t like Australia?”

“I do.”

Eleanor cocked her head.  “I’m gonna need a bit more clarity on the situation here, Little.”

“I don’t have a lot of friends.”

“You have Paige and Tayla.”

“And they have fifty thousand other friends, too.”  Anwuli sat up straight.  “I don’t fit in with white people.  I don’t fit in with black people.  We’ve move every few years.  I want to belong somewhere,” Anwuli said.  “Am I selfish?  I don’t want to be selfish.  I don’t want you to be mad at me.”

“I will never be mad at you for telling me how you feel,” she said.  “Dad and I have both struggled with opening up that way at times.  And wanting to belong somewhere doesn’t make you selfish,” Eleanor said.  “It probably isn’t my place to speak on some of what you said, but the university has resources…have you talked to Dad about that?”

“Not yet.  I feel stupid.  You always do good things for people, and I think about me.”

“You’re ten years old, sweetheart.  And let me tell you a little secret.”  Eleanor lowered her voice, even though they were the only two in the room.  “Caring about you doesn’t mean you don’t care about others.”  She opened her arms, and Anwuli melted into the embrace.  “I’ve told you before, and I’ll tell you again,” she said, “Dad and I do a lot of good for the world, but _you_ are the greatest thing we’ve ever done.”  She smiled.  “And we did that pretty well, if I do say so myself.”

“Ew.”

Eleanor’s laugh was partly to mask her horror at what Anwuli had thought she’d meant.  “Well,” she said, pulling her into her arms, “one thing’s for sure, you are _definitely_ my daughter.”

* * *

Eleanor waited until she was back in the office to call Janet.  “Janet?” She asked quietly.

Janet’s typical chipper programming melted away when she recognized Eleanor’s tone.  “What’s wrong?”

“I just want to know something,” she said, “but I don’t know if I want to know it at the same time.”

“Okay.”  Janet waited.  “Have you decided?”

Eleanor gave her a somber smile.  “It doesn’t happen that fast.”  She rubbed the sides of her thumbs together.  “Okay.  I do want to know.”  She looked up at Janet, biting her lip.

“I have been told that sometimes it is less painful overall to just get your question out,” Janet said, a hint of her typical cheery mood returning in what seemed like an attempt at a pep talk.

Eleanor let out a deep breath.  “When they reset the timeline in which Chidi and I had a daughter together…what happened to her??

* * *

**REBOOT FIFTEEN**

“Okay, if we’re going to send them back to Earth again, how do we do it?” Vicky asked.  “Do we do it like we did the original times, or like we did right before we started this Fake Good Place nonsense?”

“I think we need to do it like we did the previous time,” Michael said.  “When we automatically reset the timeline and had Eleanor and Chidi meet each other, they always ended up together and always did much more good than bad.  But the last time we did it before we started this game up…”

“We made sure they didn’t meet on Earth,” Simone said.  “And when they don’t help each other, they cause more damage than good.  If we want to play around with other factors, we have to prevent them from meeting on Earth at all.  We’ve already exhausted the variables when they know each other.”

“Exactly,” Michael said.  “Previously, as soon as they died, we kept them in limbo, changed something about Earth, and sent them back as is.  They meet each other, they become better people.  Now, we have to remove the other from the equation.”

“What about Tahani and Jason?” Vicky asked.  “Can we manipulate it so Donkey Doug is his father, or something?”

“Vicky,” Shawn said, “we can’t get too crazy here.”

“Why the here not?”

“I think we make Tahani an only child,” Simone suggested.  “See how much effort she makes into being a good person when not trying to out-do her sister.”

“Excellent!”  Michael pointed at Simone, nodding furiously.  “That is brilliant.  She will crash and burn worse than Eleanor and Chidi.  Is that the phrase?  Do things crash and burn on Earth?”

“They do.  I’ve been reading up.”

“No one cares, Vicky,” Shawn said.

“Hey!”  Gen slammed her hand down a couple of times on the table.  “When do I get to be the judge?  I’ve been looking forward to that.”

“We are all looking forward to that,” Simone said, “but I don’t think we need it yet.”

“What do you mean ‘yet’?” Gen said.  “We’re the only ones that remember what happens here.”

“Tell you what,” Shawn said.  “ _Next_ time we send them back, you can do your stupid idea.  Personally I liked it better when I was the top dog.”

“You’re the only one who likes it when you’re the top dog,” Vicky said.

“Hey,” Michael said, “let’s not fight.  Our goal is to make _them_ miserable.”

“Look, I agree with everything you said, but I want Donkey Doug to be Jason’s father.  Can you give me this, _please_?” Vicky said, her hands pressed together, her tone making it extremely clear that her patience was wearing out.

“I’ll agree if we get another vote for my idea,” Michael said.

“I’m down,” said Simone.

“No,” Shawn said.  “I don’t like it.”

“Well, I’m voting with them,” Gen said.  “We’re about torturing each other with this nonsense.”

Shawn looked surprised.  “You’re not finding this fun?”

Michael rolled his eyes.  “Alright.  More time on Earth, then reboot sixteen.  Maybe with a different Earth life, Eleanor won’t figure our game out this time.”

“Well,” Simone said with a smirk.  “She hasn’t figured out the _whole_ game yet.”

“And as soon as she does,” Michael said, “this whole thing is over.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter. I opened a huge rabbit hole in writing this, one I don’t think I could explore all of even if I had the time. I was hoping to post two more chapters, but primarily I wanted to get this finished before the season four premiere likely makes all of it impossible to fit as a headcanon. So, as a result, I didn’t break this one up into two and just posted it all together.  
> I wrote this fic off of the one constant on this show – that nothing is as it seems, or as we’re told. I decided to dismantle almost everything we had managed to accept as truth, and construct an entirely different explanation for how the afterlife works and what the Good and Bad places actually are. Thanks to all my readers for (I think) trusting me and being open to everything I’ve thrown out. The best thing about this show, to me, is how it makes you think.  
> I hope you enjoy this conclusion, and sorry about the wait.

“I _asked_ , what happened to Anwuli?”

Simone hesitated.  “Well, she…ceased to exist, as well.”

“Like…like that?  Just with one snap of the fingers, a whole living, breathing person just vanishes from time?”

“Not from time.  She’s out there with the others.”

“What do you mean by _out there_?” Eleanor demanded.

“She isn’t on Earth anymore, not in a world where her parents aren’t.  But she’s somewhere in this plane, waiting for her own afterlife.  Her own Good or Bad place, when it comes.”

Eleanor – this Eleanor – had never met Anwuli.  But somehow, she knew her.  She’d seen that little girl she never knew she once wanted as clear as day on the reel, looking mostly like Chidi but with hints of her once not – trashbagged – self, like her mesmerizing eyes that were _unmistakably_ Eleanor’s.  She wasn’t that person anymore, the not – trashbag.  But she was as close as she’d likely ever gotten.

“This all sucks, Simone.  Why are you even telling me this, all of this, now?”

Simone's eyes softened.  "Because Michael isn't the only one of us rooting for you, now."

* * *

“You’re looking at me differently,” Chidi said.

“No, I’m not,” she replied quickly, hoping to channel whatever Architect power of suggestion she could into convincing him otherwise.  But she knew it wouldn’t work.  Being so close to him physically and so far apart emotionally felt more like dying than being hit by a boner pill truck.

Well, she assumed.  She still had no memory of that.

Michael – and, it seemed, Simone and Vicky and the “judge” and Shawn and who knew however many others, had somehow, over the past who knew how many years, been continually rebooting them, managing to kill them over and over again even after they were already dead.  And yet nothing felt more like dying than this whole situation with Chidi.

_Why can’t I just tell you I love you?  Why can’t you just have all the memories I do?_

She wanted to watch more, see Chidi with Anwuli, see more of their flirting, their milestones.  But she wanted to be able to _share_ that with him.

At least now, knowing what she did, she could wipe away any trace of the fear she’d carried that Chidi and Simone, two dead humans living in a Fake Good Place, would find each other and end up together while she appeared to be nothing but an off – limits architect.

An off – limits _snack_ of an architect, but off – limits nonetheless.

“I can’t tell you about it,” she offered flatly.  “It involves too much that you don’t know.”

“You know,” Chidi said, “Janet was telling me about how every time she’s in a newly set neighborhood, she becomes a little bit more human.  I think maybe you’re becoming a little bit more human, too.”

She gave a tired smile.  “I guess you have that effect on me.”

Their shared look lingered, both of them frozen, except for their eyes.  Eleanor wondered if hers were softening as his were, if hers appeared to be searching as much as his were.  She couldn’t ask him, nor could she ask him if he ever thought he might have owned clown dogs in his past life.  If he’d ever wanted a child.  What he would say if he knew he’d had one.

What he would say if he knew that child was hers, too.

* * *

Janet had promised to be there for Eleanor, and vice versa.  The two wome…the woman and the not – a – robot were trying to fulfill that promise.  They spent time together in the office, Janet trying to successfully tap into the human side of her while not losing the core part of her identity, her primary strength, her main asset.  According to all Eleanor knew about how the afterlife worked – which of course was much less than she’d thought – Janet was barely even a functional, acceptable Janet anymore.

“We’ve said the most important thing is our relationships with other people, right?” Eleanor said.  “What we owe to each other, but also what we _are_ to each other.  Take Chidi out of my life, on Earth, and I’m a bad person.  I get into the Bad Place.  But when we were together, we were good people.  And yet we still somehow ended up in this endless Fake Good Place cycle.  I don’t understand it.”

“I wish I did,” Janet said.  “They didn’t program me to know that.”

Eleanor posed this question to Simone the next time _they_ talked.  She wanted to ask Michael.  She knew Michael knew that some new information had been revealed to her.  But she didn’t know how much Simone was risking telling her this.  She didn’t want to get Michael in trouble.  As much as he lied to them over the…over the years?  Reboots? Over the _course of all of this,_ she still cared about him, and she still firmly believed he cared about the Soul Squad.

Simone hesitated at her question.  “It is very complicated.”

“What is very complicated?” Jason asked.  Eleanor jumped; she hadn’t seen him, Tahani, and Michael enter the otherwise empty restaurant.

“The methods for getting us into either the Good Place or Bad Place,” Eleanor said.  She raised her eyebrows at Simone.  “Spill, girl.  Demon.  Girl demon.  Super attractive girl demon.”

“What?” Simone said.

Eleanor coughed.  “I mean, what?”

“It’s complicated,” Michael said.  “But it all comes down to one thing, and it’s something like Karma.”

“Karma?  I do believe in Karma.  I remember when that fat bitch Carly…”

“Western cultures essentially stole and warped the concept of Karma from the Hindus,” Simone said.  “But the way it works here is _closer_ to the Hindu belief system.  We get to play around with you as long as your good versions and bad versions aren’t A) balanced or B) tipped in the favor of the Bad Place.  You get to go to the Good Place if your good starts overwhelming your bad.  What we haven’t encountered in 500 years is someone who actually has achieved that.  Like Abraham Lincoln.  Freed the slaves, that’s great, right, but then there’s the issue of massacring Native Americans and having selfish motives in said emancipation.  Mother Teresa, there was the prioritization of conversion over actual aid.  It goes on.  Albert Einstein, did so much for science and advancement, but then, you know, the misogyny, the…”

“You know what I’ve always found super cool?” Jason said.

Michael sighed. “ _What_ , Jason?”

“How coink-y-dental it is that we call someone Einstein if they’re really smart, and a really smart dude happened to be named Einstein.  The world works in mysterious ways.”

Michael put his head in one of his hands.

“Any time we sent anyone back, they just further proved why they belonged in the Bad Place,” Simone continued.

“Wow,” Eleanor said.

“Were they all as…aware…of all this as we were?” Tahani said.

“That’s another difference,” Michael said.  “For all they were praised for their intellect, they never learned as much about the real afterlife.  Either due to denial, fear, or distrust of the…technology we have here that they weren’t familiar with.  You can bet that Anastasia Romanov was a bit alarmed by Janet.”

“Not me, Janet,” Janet said.  “But the Janet assigned to that neighborhood.  Unfortunately, I am not privy to those details as my all – encompassing knowledge is restricted to Earth.  But I’ve heard stories.”  Her face took on a distant expression.  “I’ve heard some things.”

“Snap out of it, Janet,” Michael said, waving his hand in front of her eyes. 

She gave a short nod.  “Yes, sir.”

“But Chidi and I…we were good, before.  And what about that Earth reboot where Tahani was an only child?  She had to have been good for the right reasons, then.”

“She’s about to figure it out, isn’t she?” Vicky said.

Eleanor jumped again.  “I swear, where do you all come from?”

“We have been through more reboots and reversals than anyone else, by far, by your own admission,” Tahani said.  “And you keep doing it because you claim that you’re trying to see if we’ll ever belong in the Good Place.  Haven’t we done enough? Haven’t we earned our way into the Good Place just for having to go through this over eight hundred times?”

“That is like, exactly what I said to you the other day,” Eleanor said.  “Like, word for word.”

“Sorry.  I’ll cite my sources next time.  Would you prefer MLA, or APA?”

“Here they go again,” Vicky said.  “It’s exciting when they do this.”

“Look,” Tahani said.  “I’d take bantering with this one, Jason pretending to be a monk, and Chidi complaining about his stomachaches in the Bad Place over being in a Good Place without them.  So there.  Your ridiculous torture will never actually work, because just like the people in the Good Place’s good outweighs their bad, our friendships outweigh the torture.  You haven’t won, no matter how much you try to throw at us.”

Eleanor noticed a small lift to Michael’s eyebrows.  She glanced at Tahani, then Simone.  Then Vicky, who looked startled.  “Tahani just hit on something, didn’t she?”

“Michael tried to tell you, once,” Gen said.  “He disguised it well.  But he tried.”

“When?  And w _hen did_ you _get here?_ ”

“You don’t remember it,” Simone said.  “Janet, if you please pull up what we discussed earlier.”

At least Eleanor heard the _bing_ that accompanied Janet’s entrance.

“Are you requesting the PowerPoint presentation on the best ways for Jason and I to – ”

“No Janet.  Not that.  The other one.”

“Ah.  Right.”  Janet smirked at Eleanor.  “That PowerPoint presentation brings out my inner Baaaad Janet.”

“Janet!”

“Sorry, Simone.”  The projector appeared.  It began to move.

_“As long as I’m with you guys, I’m always in the Fake Good Place.”_

_“That doesn’t sound as nice as you think it does.”_

_“…the real Bad Place was the friends we made along the way.”_

_“No.  Still nonsense.  One more try?”_

_“In a way, the Good Place was inside the Bad Place…all along?”_

_“You know what? That’s technically true.  I’m going to give it to you.”_

Eleanor noticed the look of delight on Michael’s face.  “I…”

“I do care about you all.  I hope you don’t doubt that, even after all this. I wanted you to figure it out.  But I had to be subtle.”

“You weren’t subtle,” Simone said.  “You gave them 173 hints.  There were just only that handful they are capable of interpreting.”

“So given the intellect and mental capacity of my audience, I _was_ subtle.”

“You were lucky.”

“ _Any_ way,” Eleanor said, raising an eyebrow.

“Right.  Think of this all this way.  What do many religious people say about gay people?” Simone said.  “In terms of the afterlife.”

“They say that they’re going to Hell,” Tahani said.

“More generally, they’re saying that they, the religious, the righteous, they’re going _somewhere else_ than where the gay people go.  So the homophobic people are in one place, the gay people are in another place.  Both think that they have the best end of the deal.”

“I see,” Eleanor said.  “I remember some Tumblr posts about that.  _I don’t want to spend eternity with those stuffy old Bible thumpers anyway._ And _if all gays go to Hell, it’s got to be fabulous._ ”

“Both groups would believe,” Tahani said, slowly, “that _they’re_ the ones in the Good Place.”

Simone pointed at Tahani.  “Exactly.”

“Holy motherforking shirtballs,” Eleanor said, her eyes wide.  “It’s all an illusion!”

“It’s all an illusion,” Michael said.  “To an extent.  You all _have_ been in the Bad Place in that we were trying to torture you – and we did do it quite successfully for a while.  But in reality, the afterlife is what you make of it.  One of the times we sent you back to Earth, we said we would put you all in your own Medium Places for a while.  None of you wanted to go alone. For the four of you, no matter what we try to do, you _make_ a Good Place for each other.”

“Despite our constant attempts to make it as horrible as possible,” Vicky said.  “It was quite infuriating.  But it seems that, unfortunately for us, you all ultimately bring out the good in each other.  The presence of you four together was never, in and of itself, what made Eleanor realize they were in the Bad Place.  But the presence of you four is what all of you would require in your Good Place.  So really, you _are_ in the Good Place.  Your first attempts at life got you there.  Because if we really wanted to torture you, we’d have had you meet on Earth and then kept you apart.  But up here, you’re always put together.  It was a nice experiment.  And it was fun.  But now it’s run its course.”

“So we’ve…actually been in the Good Place this whole time?”  Eleanor frowned.  “I don’t buy it.  I wouldn’t have lost Chidi in Real Heaven.”

“We have to have our fun, too,” Gen said.  “We found reasons to keep sending you back, ‘for research’ we said.  To understand humans more.  Because see, we didn't create you all.  We only know what we know off of observation.  So, greater good, you know, we can send fascinating subjects back.  And usually, overall, they _don't_ become better with more chances.  But you continually just kept becoming better people; it just happened once you got here.” 

“So…what happens now?”  Eleanor asked.  “It can’t possibly be as easy as you all leaving us alone.”

“We’ll make you a new neighborhood,” Michael said.  “With other real residents.  It won’t matter much who else we give you.  You four will be together, so it will be the Good Place.  It might be a Bad Place for someone else.  But maybe they can form their Good Place there.  See, in a way, things aren’t that much different here than they are on Earth.”

* * *

She watched the videos with Chidi.  The ones she saw with Simone, and the one they watched together the last night of his previous reboot.  Afterward, she asked him how he felt.  She framed it as an inquiry about the reels, but they both knew it was a loaded question.

“I didn’t know I was even allowed to have feelings for you,” he said.

“It had to be this way.  You did it for me.  And for the others.  Because as far as we knew, it was the only way to save us.”

“Maybe it was,” he said.  “Maybe you had to learn to be a good person up here _without_ me helping you.  And I had to find you on my own, without overthinking or treating you as an extension of my work.  Maybe this was the last test we had to pass before they told us how things really worked.”

“They’re going to give us a new neighborhood,” she said.  “We’ll both just be two people in it.”

“You still have more memories than I do,” he said.  “But if it’s okay, I don’t want the others back yet.”  He smiled.  “I know I’m falling in love with you.  But I want to experience that journey firsthand, not through a monitor.”

“That’s fair,” she said.  “In fact, I think I’d like that, too.  To just get to see you, knowing you’re falling in love with me and looking forward to the day you’re there.”

* * *

The new neighborhood was so very similar to the one they’d lived in eight hundred times.  Eleanor wouldn’t have had it any other way.  Her small house next to Tahani’s towering one, Jason’s bud hole, not a secret, but a respected place of privacy.  The Good Plates.  All the frozen yogurt.

“ _Fuck_ this is incredible,” she said, emphasizing the word she was so happy to be able to say.  That, too, it turned out, had been an attempt to torture.  The afterlife could change people’s languages to understand their soulmates, but it couldn’t just let her swear while censoring words to _shirt, bench,_ etcetera for those that were offended by foul language?  She should have realized that preventing someone like her from swearing made no sense in a true Good Place.

But there was no pretense now.  No built in torture methods.  This world they were living in would never be perfect, because perfection didn’t exist.  People were people, even in the afterlife, and having nothing ever go wrong wasn’t a paradise.  It was _boring._   It wasn’t about the environment.  It was about realistic expectations, making the most out of every situation, and having the kind of people in one’s life that could _make_ good out of what had been so bad.

This place, their final, _finally_ forever, was wonderful, but as goes life, so goes the time after.  There were still ways to make their own personal Good Place better.  Like Chidi eventually dropping the _falling_ from the phrase _falling in love with you._   Janet and Jason finally figuring out the best method for intimacy between a human and a not – a – robot. 

Like Janet falling more easily into Girl’s Nights at Tahani’s, without resorting to stilted clichés from television shows and struggling less to adapt to the idea that human behavior wasn’t always textbook. 

Like Michael joining them, as he promised he would “in ten minutes or one thousand years, as soon as we figure out what our next big philosophical experiment will include, with new humans and new parameters.”

Or like Eleanor working up the courage to approach the young woman who lived above the pet store.  The woman with all the dogs.  The woman who looked mostly like Chidi, but who had her mother’s eyes.

* * *

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to imply here at the end, since Anwuli hasn't approached Eleanor, that both of them have no actual memory of being together in Life and either just Eleanor or both of them have seen video footage. So they'll be meeting as adults, about the same age as each other, and learning how to love each other just like Chidi is learning to love Eleanor again, without actually turning present!Eleanor into someone who is all over the whole Being A Mom thing. Thank you all for your lovely comments.


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